Is Social Media Right For Your Field Service Business?

Which social channel is right for you?

You may have heard people talking about someone who is “Instagram famous” or an overnight sensation video blogger like Jenna Marbles. People have turned these platforms into rewarding full time careers. Social media has changed the way we live, communicate and do business.In a recent study by the Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers include social media in their marketing strategy. Coincidentally, 85% of those same marketers weren’t sure which social media channels were actually the most effective for their business.
The field services industry is relatively new to the social media scene, but that’s exactly why this is an exciting new avenue for both service businesses and homeowners. It can be a rocky road learning to navigate something new like a Facebook business page or Google+.
Here at mHelpDesk, we’ve learned a lot about how to best use social media through trial and error. We’re still learning more every day– but we’ve got some insights that are especially applicable for field service businesses. Based on what we’ve observed and experienced, here are the differences between the various social media sites for field service businesses, and how you can use them to increase your leads and jobs.

Here’s how we broke it down:

The “MUST HAVES”

Based on our experience and analysis, these are the key places field service businesses should focus their social media energy.

Your Social Home

1.11 billion visitors per month665 million active users every day645 million local business page views per weekAs the largest and most popular social media site worldwide, every business that is looking to grow, or keep the customers it has, should have a Facebook pages. The average age of a homeowner in the US (who is the most common field service customer) is 33 according to the most recent Zillow Survey. The average Facebook user in the US is between 25 and 44 years old — right in the field service sweet spot.For SPs: As a service provider, an awesome Facebook page should be a top priority for your business since the majority of homeowners are on Facebook and use it to find local businesses and services.

The Homeowner’s Go-To Services Directory

100 million unique visitors each month
Many homeowners want proof that a company provides great products and services before trusting them. Yelp, which is built entirely on customer reviews of local businesses, is a main place homeowners turn to get that proof. As a small business, Yelp is a great tool to utilize to help strengthen your online reputation.
For SP’s: Yelp is imperative to small business success. Yelp can help you win the job or it can drive prospective customers away. You can learn 3 tricks to getting more leads from your Yelp page in our last blog post.

Search Engine Boost

359 million active users per month
Google+ can be considered a combination of Facebook and Twitter. Google+ business page results often show up as a picture on the right side of the results when someone searches in Google or Google Maps:
Ex: A quick search for “ice cream” pulls these local results:

While it’s not used as often as Facebook or Yelp when searching, having a strong and complete Google+ profile and having several customer reviews there could improve the likelihood that potential customers find your business through a Google search.For SP’s: Google+ could potentially be used to boost your presence in search engine results, but it’s still not the highest priority when mapping out your social media strategy to help you reach more homeowners and potential leads.

A Place to Network

230 million users2.7 million business pages already on LinkedIn
According to Business Insider, LinkedIn has high adoption among “highly educated and high-income users.” LinkedIn is used by 44% of Americans with income of $75,000/yr or more. LinkedIn should be a priority if you focus on high end jobs in high income areas. LinkedIn Groups are also a great way to network with others in your industry or local area.
For SPs: A LinkedIn page (in tandem with a Yelp page) can provide legitimacy to your company. Since higher income users are more likely to own a home, this could be a great way for you to find potential customers.

The EXTRAS

If you have someone on staff who is social media savvy, here are some other channels to consider.

Your “Video Home”

1 billion unique visitors every month100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minuteSecond largest search engine (over Yahoo and Bing!)YouTube, which is primarily a search engines for videos, has changed lives. It may be hard to believe, but some people make a very good living off of how many views, shares and comments their YouTube videos get.
But is it right for a field service business? If your small business has the bandwidth to use YouTube as a marketing tool, it can be a great way to increase your brand recognition and create buzz through videos of happy customers, how-to videos, etc. And as an added bonus, since YouTube is owned by Google, placing quality content on YouTube could boost help you get more visitors from search engines. Videos are over 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google’s result pages than websites.
For SPs: Determine if creating video content or contracting a freelancer to create them for you is worth the investment. Customer testimonial videos can be extremely effective in drumming up business and are great add ons to your Facebook and Yelp pages. Be sure to include video links along with any emails to your customers and share on your Facebook and Yelp profiles!

Most Effective for “Breaking News”

215 million active usersTwitter is great for getting a short, immediate message out quickly and for linking to videos or articles that live in other places. The limited character count of a Twitter post (140 characters!) forces you to be concise and creative to make your message effective.For SPs: Since only 30% of adults under 50 who regularly go online use Twitter and a measly 11% of online adults over age 50 user Twitter, it is not the best place for most field service businesses to reach homeowners.

Conclusion

Now that you know the statistics, use them to create your business’s perfect social media strategy. Do you already have Facebook and Yelp pages and they just need a quick revamp to be effective, or are you starting from scratch?
Whether you’re a social media newbie or you’re able to Facebook and tweet in your sleep, by following this guide you can generate more buzz and new leads via social media.
Homework: Pick a “Must Have” social media profile and either overhaul an existing profile or start a new one from scratch. Then tell us about it by commenting on this blog post!
We want to know how your social media journey is going. What are you having trouble with? How can we help you succeed?

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